BIRDS. 435 



some pea-hens had been known last summer to haunt 

 the coppices and coverts where this mule was found. 



Mr. Elmer, of Farnham, the famous game painter, was 

 employed to take an exact copy of this curious bird. 



[It ought to be mentioned that some good judges 

 have imagined this bird to have been a stray grous or 

 black cock ; it is, however, to be observed, that Mr. \V. 

 remarks, that its legs and feet were nak^d, whereas 

 those of the grous are feathered to the toes. J. A.] 8 



8 Dr. Latham observes, that " pea-hens, after they have done laying, 

 sometimes assume the plumage of the male bird," and has given a figure 

 of the male-feathered pea-hen now to be seen in the Leverian Museum ; 

 and M. Salerne remarks, that " the hen pheasant, when she has done lay- 

 ing and sitting, will get the plumage of the male." May not this hybrid 

 pheasant (as Mr. White calls it) be a bird of this kind? that is, an old 

 hen pheasant which had just begun to assume the plumage of the cock. 

 MARKWICK. 



Concerning the hybrid pheasant, see the account by John Hunter, in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, Art. xxx. 1760. " The subject of the account 

 is a hen pheasant with the feathers of the cock. The author concludes, 

 that it is most probable that all those hen pheasants, which are found 

 wild, and have the feathers of the cock, were formerly perfect hens, but 

 that now they are changed with age, and perhaps by certain constitu- 

 tional circumstances/' It appears, also, that the hen taking the plumage 

 of the cock is not confined to the pheasant alone, it takes place equally 

 with the pea-hen, as was seen in the specimen belonging to Lady Tynte, 

 when in the Leverian Museum. After many broods, this hen took much 

 of the plumage of the cock, and also the fine train belonging to that bird. 

 See also Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary, Art. Pheasant. MITFORD. 



I saw this curious bird stuffed, in the collection of the Earl of Egre- 

 mont at Petworth, in the year 1804, and I have not the slightest hesita- 

 tion in pronouncing that it was a mule between the black cock and the 

 common pheasant. I was informed at the time by Lord Egremont that it 

 was Mr. White's bird, and I examined it with the most minute attention, 

 compared it with the description in the Naturalist's Calendar, and wrote 

 at the moment marginal memoranda on my copy of that book. In 

 Mr. White's description of the bird, where he says that the back, wing- 

 feathers, and tail, were somewhat like the upper parts of a hen part- 

 ridge, I scratched out, at the time, the words, "somewhat like" and 

 wrote in the margin "much browner than," and with that alteration I 

 believe Mr. White's description to be quite correct; but I noted down 

 that the plate was exceedingly ill coloured, which indeed may be per- 

 ceived by comparing it with the description. I did not then, nor do I 

 now, entertain the slightest doubt of its being a mule between the black 

 game and the pheasant. I understand that some doubt exists at present 



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